Where we are in the world
Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania, just north of Australia. It shares an island with Indonesia, which occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea. The country is one of the most isolated places in the world – in fact, less than 15% of the population live in urban centers.
The country has received significant attention from multinational oil & gas companies because its internal regions are rich with oil and liquified natural gas (LNG); however, there is very little (if any) infrastructure for these companies to use to develop and extract these resources.
Over the past decade there has been significant development of pipelines and processing facilities, with many more planned for the future.
See the interactive Google Map at the bottom of the post!
Three key facts about this map
There are two major “projects” that govern the LNG extraction in Papua New Guinea
Originally, the PNG LNG Project was the only operation to extract and transport LNG from sources. This project operates along the major 400+ mile pipeline that currently ends at Hides, in the isolated middle of the country. The PNG LNG Project is primarily run by Exxon Mobil.
Recently, another project has formed named Papua LNG Project, primarily run by French company Total SA. The main objective of this project is to focus on the Elk-Antelope LNG field and develop a 200+ mile pipeline for extraction.
The largest airstrip in Papua New Guinea is located in one of the most isolated areas
The Komo Airfield, located close to the Hides Central Processing Facility in the central part of the country, is the largest airstrip in the country measuring 3.2 km long. It has been used by Exxon for the day-to-day operations of the PNG LNG Project due to the lack of roads connecting urban areas to the LNG sites. The airstrip can handle Antonov planes, the largest planes in the world currently in-use.
All LNG extracted is transported to one central facility near Port Moresby
When LNGs are extracted, they are cooled in processing facilities to a temperature allowing it to liquify; it is then transported via the 400-mile PNG LNG pipeline (or the planned 200-mile Papua LNG pipeline) to a central facility in Caution Bay, near the capital city. Here, the LNG is processed and loaded onto cargo ships (via a massive 1.5 mile bridge) to the international marketplace.
Note: the areas for LNG sources in the Google Map above are estimates
Additional links and sources
- Official website for the PNG LNG Project, run by Exxon Mobil (link)
- Press release announcing the Papua LNG Project, run by Total SA (link, published in 2019)
